Utah State University Wind Orchestra Features Composer, Conductor Randol Bass

The Utah State University Wind Orchestra, under the conductorship of Director of Bands Thomas P. Rohrer, will perform its annual winter concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 23, in the Daines Concert Hall on the USU campus. There is no charge for this concert.

The concert is simply entitled “Randol Alan Bass,” with specific reference to guest conductor Randol Bass, who has amassed a myriad of works as one the United States’ most prolific composers and arrangers for over 40 years.

Bass will conduct several traditional classics along with original and transcribed works from his own hand. Of the former, the program includes “Fantasies on a Theme by Haydn” by Norman Dello Joio, a composer affiliated with the Young Composers Project of the early 1960s along with Vaclav Nelhybel’s “Symphonic Movement,” a contemporary work of the same period.

In addition, Bass will conduct two of his own works, a setting of Shenandoah and a specially-adapted concert band version of “Bruadar Albanach,” a Scottish folk song piece. Additional transcriptions from the pen of Bass include two Bruce Broughton film/television adaptations, end title music from “Tombstone” and a short medley of Broughton cartoon music. The concert opens with two British band pieces, “Fiesta” by Philip Sparke and three movements from Gordon Jacob’s Music for a Festival.

Bass has achieved an impressive array of performances and commissions by highly-respected and prestigious ensembles. These include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony of Washington, D.C., the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and the Boston Pops Orchestra. His “Gloria” setting was premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1990 by the New York Pops under Skitch Henderson. His arrangement “Joy To The World; A Fanfare for Christmas Day” has been recorded by the Boston Pops under the direction of Keith Lockhart and can be heard on their current CD release, Sleigh Ride.

His arrangement of “Conquest of Paradise” (Vangelis) was commissioned by the Boston Pops and can be heard on their 2000 CD Summon the Heroes under the baton of eminent film composer John Williams. Additionally, his works have been performed by the Tanglewood Chorus, the Grand Rapids Symphony and Chorus, the Dallas Symphony and Chorus, The Colorado Symphony and Chorus and the Los Angeles Master Chorale as well as numerous other orchestras and choruses throughout the U.S. and Europe.

Active since the late 1970s as an arranger, Bass is now focusing his talents on original composition, largely due to the demand for his music. He has just completed an extensive Christmas cantata, Glad Tidings, commissioned and recorded by the Houston Symphony and Chorus and featuring a narration by former President George H.W. Bush.

A recording project with the National Symphony and Tallis Chamber Choir in London resulted in the Christmas CD collection A Feast Of Carols consisting entirely of material composed, arranged and conducted by the composer. Finally, in February of 2008, Bass completed a recording project with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus. This album is a collection of original compositions including a large-scale work commission by the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus: Passage Into Spirit. This 30-minute oratorio, based on selected poetry of Walt Whitman, is the centerpiece of the album, scheduled to be released in late 2008.

The annual event is part of the concert season for the USU Bands, which include the Fall and Spring Wind Orchestra, Fall and Spring Symphonic Bands, Basketball Pep Band, and Aggie Marching Band.